Chennai, Sep 30 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin reshuffled his Cabinet on Saturday and carefully chose his team. Before the rejig, the DMK President had conducted a series of meetings with the party's district office bearers and decided who to include in the Cabinet.

He has elevated his son and the state's Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Development, Udhayanidhi Stalin as the Deputy Chief Minister in order to capitalise on the youth power. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it was Udhayanidhi Stalin who had effectively run the campaign for DMK across the state, making him the most travelled leader in those polls.

The young scion from the first family of the DMK had also conducted an aggressive campaign in the state and took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ensured the victory of the DMK-led INDIA bloc candidates in all the 39 seats of Tamil Nadu and the lone seat in Puducherry.

K. R. Manikandan, political commentator and Director of the Centre for Policy and Development Studies, a think tank based out of Chennai, while speaking to IANS, said: "Udhayanidhi has proved himself, be it the Sanatana Dharma issue or the electioneering focusing on the Central government's 'negligence' of Tamil Nadu, he had conveyed it effectively to the masses, thus catapulting himself as the heir apparent in DMK.'

Stalin has also brought back Senthil Balaji, who is out on bail after languishing in Puzhal central jail for 471 days in a case related to a job-for-cash scam. Balaji is a highly resourceful person and Stalin has brought him back to the Cabinet and handed him both Electricity and Excise portfolios. This is precisely aimed at breaking the citadel of the principal Opposition, AIADMK, in Western Tamil Nadu where he hails from.

The induction of Dalit leader Govi Chezhiaan to the post of Higher Education Minister replacing powerful leader K. Ponmudi is aimed at capitalising on the Dalit vote bank and giving a strong message to the Dalit political party Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) which had raised the demand to be included in the Cabinet.

R. Rajendran who is the sole winner for the DMK in Salem district (another stronghold of AIADMK) aims to get the maximum seats from that belt in the next Assembly polls.

The Chief Minister has also shown the door to Gingee K. Mastan who was the Minorities and Tamil Nadu NRI Welfare Minister as he was termed as underperforming or rather performing poorly. He is replaced by Avadi MLA, S. M. Nasser. This move is also aimed at consolidating the minority vote bank in Tamil Nadu.

In the 234-member legislative assembly of Tamil Nadu, DMK has 133 MLAs and its allies Congress (18), VCK (4), CPI (2) and CPI-M (2) have a total of 159 seats in the house. The DMK-led alliance also got a commendable vote share of 45.38 per cent.

Interestingly, it was National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by AIADMK that opposed DMK in the 2021 polls. While AIADMK won 66 seats in the elections, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) got five seats and BJP won four seats with a total vote share of 39.71 per cent. However, after the advent of K. Annamalai as the BJP state President, the NDA alliance fell apart in the state with AIADMK being on its own while PMK and BJP entered into an alliance of convenience in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls with no guarantee of contesting the 2026 Assembly elections together.

M. P. Panuthan, a political commentator and retired Professor of Political Science, while speaking to IANS, said: "At present it's a roller coaster ride for Stalin and DMK but in politics, things change at the drop of a hat. However, the new Cabinet of Stalin is a carefully picked one aimed at the 2026 polls and it has catered properly to all sections of the society; if the principal Opposition AIADMK doesn't put its act together and realign among themselves, the 200 Assembly seat dream of Stalin is achievable.'

/IANS